


Soong Brother Christmas

by soongtypeprincess



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Christmas, Fluff and Angst, Mild Language, Multi, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 19:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soongtypeprincess/pseuds/soongtypeprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite their tumultuous past, the Soong brothers experience the holiday as a family for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soong Brother Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> This story is very non-canonical. I want the Soong brothers to live happily ever after in my head.
> 
> I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS!

“All right, class. What can you tell me about Christmas?” Ms. Gladstone asked the wide-eyed children and curious gold-skinned android that gazed up at her from their tables.

A little girl with braided blonde hair raised her hand and replied, “It’s an old Earth holiday when families decorate a tree with bright lights.”

“Very good!” their teacher praised. “Anyone else know what happens at Christmas?”

“Presents are exchanged and songs are sung door to door,” another student added.

“Oh!” Another little girl raised her hand. “And it gets really cold outside and snow falls from the sky!”

B4 slowly raised his hand. 

“Yes, B4?” Ms. Gladstone said.

“Excuse me, Miss,” he said quietly. “What is snow?”

A few of his classmates lightly gasped with surprise of their own and B4 lowered his gaze, embarrassed and thinking that he had asked a rather foolish question.

“You’ve never seen snow, B4?” asked his classmate, Marta, who had short brown hair and always wore a red bow.

The android shook his head, still looking sheepishly at his hands.

Marta suddenly stood from her seat and exclaimed, “Ms. Gladstone! Let’s play in the snow today! B4’s never seen it!”

The other children leapt to their feet as B4 instantly raised his head and watched them excitedly jump up and down. “Yes! Let’s play in the snow!” “He’s never seen it!” “It’ll be fun!” “Field trip! Field trip!”

“Children,” their teacher calmly shushed them. “We can’t play in the snow right now.” 

Everyone let out a disappointed moan, and even B4 put his elbows on the table and rested his cheeks on his fists as he sulked. 

He couldn’t help but be excited, too, even though he didn’t know what snow was or what it was for, and so he decided that Christmas wasn’t a very fun Earth holiday after all, even if Data had replicated a tree and helped him decorate it.

“We can go to the holodeck after class,” Ms. Gladstone announced.

B4 raised his head again and smiled brightly as his classmates cheered.

-One hour later-

Lore leaned against the wall in the corridor as he waited for B4’s class to be dismissed. He was beginning to hear commotion from the behind the doors, and he stepped closer to it as he knew that that sound usually meant that the children were putting away their books in their desks and shuffling to their feet.

“Finally,” he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, the doors burst open and Lore was bombarded by the hasty footfalls of small children as they stampeded toward him.

“What the…!” he exclaimed as he jumped out of their way as they sped down the corridor and careened around the corner, chatting loudly and giggling.

Lore straightened his blue tunic top and turned back to the classroom where his older brother abruptly threw his arms around his waist and lifted him off the floor.

“Lore! We have to hurry!” B4 shouted as he held a tight grip on his brother as he spun around.

“Hey! Put me down!” Lore shouted. “Hurry where? Why? What’s going on?”

B4 set him down gently and started sputtering, “We need to go…holodeck! Snow, Lore! The children…we are going to…Christmas…snow…trees!”

Lore raised his hands and carefully cupped B4’s face. “Brother…slow down.” He waited until B4 caught his breath, but the intense golden glow in his eyes still remained. “Now…there is no snow here. We’re in space.”

“But, Lore…”

“No snow around here, buddy. No trees either.”

B4 grunted in frustration as he pushed Lore’s hands off his face. “In the holodeck, Brother. We are going to play in the snow in the holodeck.”

“Why?”

“It’s Christmas!”

Lore rolled his eyes. “Of course, it is!” he said in a sarcastic tone. “Fine. Go play. I’ll go back to our quarters and peek in our stockings.”

“Lore, no!” B4 said as he held Lore’s shoulders. “Please come with me. I want to show you snow, too.”

“I’ve seen it,” he groaned. “No, thanks.”

“You have?”

“Of course I have! I’ve been a lot of places, B4. I’ve seen it all! Snow…uh, ice…” His voice trailed off as B4’s grip softened. “I…I don’t want to be in the snow, Brother. Okay? Besides, I, um…I don’t like to be cold.”

B4 smiled. “But you will not be cold,” he declared. “You can wear your scarf.”

Lore raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have a scarf.”

“Oh, uh…oops.” B4 murmured as he looked away. “Well…you do, though. It is in our quarters…under the tree.”

Lore slyly grinned at him. “You got me a Christmas present?”

B4 laughed. “Of course I did. We are family.”

Lore’s grin slowly faded as he looked into B4’s doting eyes. He sighed heavily. “All right, I’ll go see the snow with you.”

“Really?” B4 exclaimed as he embraced his brother once more in a tight grip.

-In the holodeck-

Data and Lore leaned against a picket fence as delicate flakes of snow drifted serenely onto the ground around them.

The holodeck was now covered in these tiny flakes and the children, along with B4, were scooping up handfuls of them and packing them tightly into round mounds before stacking them on top of one another to form miniature snow people. Some of the children were throwing these snowy mounds at one another and laughing hysterically when the mounds shattered against them only to be gathered up once more in playful retaliation. 

The cold weather was stable enough to keep the snow intact, but also tolerable enough so that one would not get frostbite on their toes or fingers.

Data glanced over at Lore and saw that his brother was stroking the blue and yellow plaid scarf that was loosely tied around his neck. He also noticed the small, grateful smile that he held. He stepped closer to the quiet android. “What did you get our brother for Christmas?”

Lore lifted his gaze to him and then instantly looked away and watched the children. “I…uh…I didn’t get him anything.”

“Nothing?” Data wasn’t all that shocked by this, but seeing as how Lore usually indulged B4, he couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t taken the time to look for a gift.

“What does he need, Brother?” Lore asked, a slight frown forming on his face. “He’s got friends, he’s got us. Isn’t that enough?”

“A gift is a symbol of appreciation, Lore,” Data informed him. “It is a token of love and devotion. It does not matter what form it takes.”

“Then why bother searching through a replicator for a material object?” he sneered. “Why can’t my present be this? Coming to the holodeck to watch him make snow angels and get whacked in the face with snowballs? At least I did that and didn’t waste my time to indulge him by giving in to materialism.”

“Why are you acting this way, Brother?” Data asked as Lore wringed his hands behind his back as his frown grew deeper.

“I’m not acting any way, Data!” Lore snapped at him, his eyes flaming. “I just don’t fucking like this holiday! I hate the fucking snow! I hate the cold! I hate the singing and the lights…and the…” His voice cracked and turned away to look out over the picket fence.

Data, keeping his eyes forward to watch B4, moved even closer to his brother. “Lore?”

The sullen android sniffed hard and his fists now clenched around the fabric of his scarf. “Yeah?”

“Did Mother and Father celebrate Christmas?”

There was a moment of silence between them before Data continued, “What was it like? Was there a tree?”

“Shut up, Data…” Lore growled.

“I do not have many memories of when I was first activated. I wonder if I celebrated Christmas with them. Perhaps Mother would have—“

“Shut up, Data!” Lore hanged his head as a single golden tear ran down his nose. 

Data turned to him with a sorrowful expression. “Lore?”

Lore gulped hard and wiped his eyes as he nodded. “Snow…I remember snow.”

“I do not remember snow on Omicron Theta. The records of the colonists do not—“

“It did,” Lore interrupted him. “But only for one night. Father called it a phenomenon.” He paused to shake his head and roll his eyes. “Everything was a scientific marvel to him.”

“Perhaps that is why we are here,” Data said.

Lore ignored him as he continued, “I remember that night. Quite vividly, actually. Mother and I watched the snow fall. She and I had turned the sofa to face the window as Father put out the lanterns. He had built a fire in the hearth and as the minutes slowly passed, the old man fell asleep in his chair.”

Data watched as Lore started to pat his scarf again. “Mother told me” he said, “that the snow reminded her of home. I remember…her fingers stroking my hair as she hummed softly to me…” His teeth clenched as he grimaced. “Oh, gods, Data!” His voice cracked again and he covered his eyes with his scarf. “What did I do to our home? What did I do…?”

The younger android tenderly took Lore’s hand and turned him back around to the joyous scene in front of them.

B4 was kneeling in the snow building yet another tiny snowman. He had a stern look of concentration on his face as he molded the snow into perfectly round heaps, then stacked three of these heaps on top of one another; he placed small shards of coal on the top mound, two for the eyes and four for the smile.

Data released Lore’s hand and put his arm around his shoulders. “I know why you have wandered for a long time, Brother. You have been running, but you no longer need to.”

Lore’s eyes met his brother’s and Data gave him an assuring smile. “You are home.” 

-Christmas Eve-

“I see you, B4.”

The older android looked up at Lore with wide eyes and a slightly guilty expression. He was sitting in front of their brightly lit tree with a colorfully wrapped present in his hands. “What, Brother?” he said with an innocent tone. “I am not…I mean…I was just rearranging our presents by color and size.”

Lore walked toward him with a knowing smile and sat beside him. “Were you, Brother?” he inquired. “Because it almost looks like you were trying to decipher what your gift was by weighing it and shaking it.”

B4 smiled back at him as he set the present in his lap. “I would not do that,” he said quietly as he gazed up at the tree.

“Open it,” Lore told him.

B4 looked around. “But Data said it is customary to open presents in the morning.”

“Well, we can start our own tradition,” Lore said. “I’ve already received my scarf, a present from you. The gift in your lap happens to be from me. So, go ahead. Open it.”

“Data is still on night watch. What about his present?”

Lore patted his brother’s shoulder. “This can be our tradition. Come on; open it. I think you’ll like it.”

B4’s smile grew wider and he carefully tore the paper away from the box. He slowly opened it and brought out a clear sphere that fit perfectly in his hand. The sphere was filled with a clear liquid and a small wooden cottage with a red roof sat in the center.

The android brought the sphere closer to his face so he could inspect it. “What is this, Lore?”

His brother carefully took the sphere from him and gently shook it. When he handed it back to him, B4 softly gasped as flurries of white whirled and drifted around the cottage. 

“It is snow!” B4 exclaimed as he watched the flurries eventually slow their movements and descend peacefully around the cottage. He held the sphere tightly and cautiously shook it to make the snow appear again.

“Brother,” Lore said quietly. “See that house?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s…” Lore paused as he sighed. “That’s mother and father’s house.”

B4 turned his attention to his brother. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Lore replied. “I replicated the house as I remember it, and since you’ve never seen it, I thought, ‘Why not put it in a snow globe?’ That way you can also see snow any time you want.”

“Lore? What were they like?”

His brother cleared his throat, thrown off his guard even though he was expecting B4’s curiosity to be piqued. “Well…uh…,” he began, “Father was usually busy working in his lab and Mother…well, she and I spent a lot of time together. She was…my teacher, I suppose.”

“Do you miss them?”

“I…uh, well…”

“Why did they leave me?”

Lore did not look at his brother. He simply said, “I don’t know, B4. They left me, too.”

The older android could sense that his sibling no longer wanted to answer any more questions, so he whispered, “Thank you, Brother. I will look at it every day.”

Lore grinned and crossed his arms over his chest as B4 shook the globe again. He set it down in front of them and leaned against Lore to put his head on his shoulder.

They were silent as they watched the fake snow fall. The only sound that could be heard was the humming of the ship and Spot’s soft, blissful purring as she slept on the sofa.


End file.
